A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INQUIRY INTO THE POSSIBILITY OF

PLAYED-WITH-NESS IN EXPERIENCES WITH THINGS

THESIS ABSTRACT:

The
subject of this inquiry is the possibility that when things are played with,
and spaces are played in, they become permeated by play, and such
played-with-ness is thereafter experienceable by others. The research takes a
position, drawn from playwork practice, of indeterminate comprehension as a
means of responsively perceiving children’s play.A Phenomenological approach was found to meet the
requirements of the inquiry. This framework allows perceptible realities of
play, by their position as lived experiences, to share an equal standing to any
theoretical or other perspective. The structure of the inquiry evolved in
response to the content of observations of children playing with things, and
the sensitizing experience of noticing. The research data came to be presented
on a large translucent reversible silk quilt, in stitches, colours, words,
pictures and found things. The quilt can be contextualized as a literal
manifestation of the qualitative research metaphor of quilt-making. From the
resulting process of data analysis, a suggestion is made that the details of
what things are, can become altered within play experiences, and that such
alterations carry forth a quality of the experience through which they
occurred. In its ambiguous meaning as both power and possibility the word might
is suggested to express the potential of play’s affect. The power of ‘might’
as possibility seems implicated in the play filled enlivening of matter in our
co-creation of reality.

For referencing purposes:

Title: A Phenomenological inquiry into the possibility of played-with-ness in experiences with things

Author: Sylwyn Guilbaud

University and Award: A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment

of the requirements of Leeds Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy